Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja has sentenced a secondary school teacher, Peter Jacob, to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old pupil with special needs.
Justice Soladoye handed down the verdict after holding that the prosecution had efficiently proved the charge of defilement against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt.
The state through one of its prosecutors, Olusola Soneye, had told the judge that the convict committed the offence sometime in 2019 at Thescol College, CMD Road, Magodo, in Ikeja.
Soneye had also claimed that the survivor, who had dyslexia, was in the primary school section of the school, which also houses the secondary school where Jacob worked.
He had maintained that the offence violated Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
The convict had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
In her judgment yesterday, Justice Soladoye held that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses was persuasive, compelling and believable.
The judge also stated that the evidence of the defendant and the three defence witnesses (staff of the school where the defendant worked) were self-serving.
The court held, “the defendant was observed to be unrepentant and unremorseful.
“The first prosecution witness (survivor) correctly identified the defendant when she gave her evidence, and the other three witnesses adequately corroborated her evidence.
“The prosecution has successfully established the ingredients of the offence against the defendant. The defendant is Godless, brutally wicked and lustful, acts unbecoming of a teacher.
“I find him guilty of the charge, and he is now sentenced to life imprisonment,” the judge held.
The court also ordered that the convict should have his name registered in the sexual offence register maintained by Lagos State.
